The Welfare State Corrupts Absolutely

Letâ€™s begin at the beginning. Medical care is not a free good found in nature. Of course, no one really thinks it is. But that doesnâ€™t keep most people from wanting to pretend otherwise, and the current institutional setting makes that possible. After a while, one forgets one is pretending. Yet medical care goes on being a collection of produced goods and services â€” subject to the laws of supply and demand, and requiring resources and labor that come with opportunity costs. Therein lies the problem.

Medical insurance has come to mean getting something for free. The receiver of a service need not ask how it is financed. Itâ€™s just taken care of. (Passive voice intentional.) Yes, somebody gets paid, and the money comes from somewhere. Thatâ€™s okay, as long as it doesnâ€™t come from the covered party. (What would be the point of having insurance?) Donâ€™t bother us with such matters.

Let us believe itâ€™s free. Let the insurer figure out the rest. But heâ€™d better keep that coverage going. And donâ€™t hassle us by not paying all bills eagerly and unquestioningly. Thatâ€™s what heâ€™s there for. Just reassure us that whatever services we consume will be taken care of. We donâ€™t want to know the details. Whatâ€™s that? The government is promising to cap our out-of-pocket expenses, require coverage for preexisting illness and free preventative care, and extend the same deal to absolutely everyone? And this will have no negative consequences whatever, such as limits on what we can buy or enlargement of the budget deficit or higher taxes for the middle class â€” but it will actually save money? Oh thank you, government!

This irresponsible mindset, which is similar to a not-very-inquisitive childâ€™s, is what at least two generations of government intervention in health care â€” and the welfare state in general â€” have produced in the American people. Thus the welfare state retards moral and intellectual development. We expect the State â€” our surrogate parent â€” to make it all right. The demagogues we call politicians are happy to feed this attitude because it provides occasions for the expansion and exercise of raw power while seeming, like Santa Claus, to give away free goods. Of such things long political careers are made.

Something for Nothing

The healthcare â€œreformâ€ juggernaut seems to be on an irresistible course. The 1,990-page (!) bill (pdf) released by the House leadership yesterday is just the latest variation on the corrupt something-for-nothing theme. The details obscure the big picture. A modest public option instead of a robust public option? Blah blah blah blah blah. The government-run insurance â€œalternativeâ€ was always more signal than substance.

Why do you need a government â€œcompetitorâ€ if the government will be dictating every detail of the private insurance business under any circumstances? What motivates the public option, I submit, is sheer hatred of private, for-profit business in the medical industry. Of course, we donâ€™t have purely private, for-profit insurance companies â€” every state government runs a regulated, protectionist insurance cartel. (Thatâ€™s why the feds exempted the insurance industry from antitrust; it was a favor to the state regulators.)

But the public-option advocates would oppose truly free-market insurance companies. Their true preference is a government monopoly â€” which is why it is so funny to hear them praise â€œchoice and competition.â€ Thatâ€™s the last thing they want, but they know that the American people wonâ€™t accept their single-payer scheme. Anyone who really wanted choice and competition would at least support legalizing interstate insurance sales. The silence about that is deafening.

Most people get their insurance through their employer, so they wonâ€™t have the option of the public option anyway. One of the biggest sources of trouble in the healthcare system is employer-purchased insurance â€” it cuts the consumer out of decision-making. Yet this bill, and all the others, strengthen that perverse system. Some reform. Despite the squawking, the insurance companies love the idea of forcing people to buy their products. The corporate state thrives.

Like an uninquisitive child, most people seem willing to believe politicians when they promise to subsidize and compel the use of medical â€œinsuranceâ€ while reducing prices without controlling choices. And while theyâ€™re at it, theyâ€™ll cut the budget deficit and boost economic growth. One shouldnâ€™t have to be an economist to smell a scam. Exactly how is that supposed to work? Theyâ€™ll get the money out of Medicare â€” without degrading the service â€” and theyâ€™ll tax millionaires, while fining employers who donâ€™t provide insurance and those of us who donâ€™t buy it. Since the American people arenâ€™t rolling on the floor laughing their you-know-whats off, I can only conclude that the governmentâ€™s schools have so dumbed them down that they have no trouble swallowing this patent nonsense.

A final word about the nearly 2,000-page bill. Others have said it, but it needs to be repeated. No one will be able to understand all the implications and consequences of a government attempt to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. Heck, few will read â€” and graspâ€“ the bill in its entirety. (You also have to read all the statutes that are amended by the bill.) Enacting laws that no one comprehends, and that turn over yet-to-be defined powers to others, wouldnâ€™t seem to satisfy the criteria of self-government, the consent of the governed, the rule of law, or any of the other political myths we live by.

I donâ€™t how any theory of political obligation rooted in popular sovereignty that could regard this bill as morally binding when it becomes â€œlaw.â€ The process mocks the philosophy expressed in the Declaration of Independence. It insults the intelligence. It disgraces everything decent about this country.

10 thoughts on “The Welfare State Corrupts Absolutely”

I agree 100%, Power corrupts, and their "health-care reform" really has nothing to do with health-care at all and everything to do with their own greed for power and control over the people.

A people depended entirely on government will be less able and inclined to resist that government when the government takes away too many of their rights.

This government is already taking too many of our rights, and we already have a huge section of our population depended upon it and thus unable/unwilling to resit this growing oppression of our basic liberty and self-determination.

Men uses to have rights chief among them was the right only to be held accountable for his own actions not that of all others around him. We have been increasingly losing that right as they collectivize more and more aspects of our rights, and with that right we lose our individual lives, and become evermore effective slaves of the Government rather then free self-determining men and women.

That is the true nature of what is and has long been at stake here. that is the basic underlining truth, and more and more of us are becoming convened in our heats desire for freedom and self-determination that this monster has gone too far. Treaded too deeply upon our essential individual rights, and must be reversed.

No, whether it is control over out health-care, our exercise, our lives it is simply a measure of power over we the individual people, that we inevitably must give up ourselves.

Health-care for the record among many cultures including Christianity historically, uses to be very much a religious matter. When did it become premissable for the State, much less the federal goverment to get involved in such things. What could be more intractability connected to god on this earth then the power our health?

It doesn't matter if most people no longer beleive that some still do. What is the famous line some Catholics uses to support government involvement in health care?

When Jesus was asked about taxation after examining the roman symbols on a roman coin:
“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”

Well I have no U.S. Government stamp on by body, indeed according to my religious believes it was made in God's image which by my estimation makes it the property of God and not Caesar. I'm sorry I cannot render onto Caesar that which is God's. The United State's Federal government has no right to make me.

Michael Boldin I am compelled none the less to stick with the simple assertion that all power corrupts and health care power is simply one of the greatest forms of power. The Government does not need that power for it to become hopelessly corrupted, indeed control over many other things such as it has already taken over the last 100 years has already been more then enough to do that job.

My question is why do we all sit here and cry about their proposal when we have no alternative? Itâ€™s easy to criticize something you did not create it, but when we do criticize without presenting other options is that effective at stopping what youâ€™re against? I heard hundreds of arguments about this bill but not one person has submitted a solution, how can we attack something with nothing to put in its place?
I agree with most of your agreement but it is futile to belittle a new system when the system we currently have is failing miserably. When people trying to get insurance cannot receive it because the insurance company will not cover their condition something needs to be done! If we leave these companies as private entityâ€™s to regulate themselves will they do it justly? So far they have not, so how do we correct this without total government control? From where Iâ€™m standing itâ€™s not the government in control but corporations that use huge sums of money to elect whoever will push their ideas.
Has anyone wondered why the Food and Drug Administration never backs nor studyâ€™s herbal remedies? Is it because drug companies cannot make these products profitable because you and I could grow them in the back yard? As for socialized health care I believe it would have some pluses, I served it the military for six years and never had a problem with the care (a socialized form of health care) I received. No insurance forms to fill out, or questionnaires, never turned away because of no insurance all I needed was my ID card shouldnâ€™t all Americans receive this kind of care? I have a son whoâ€™s a diabetic and his care was extremely good again with a socialized healthcare system. Now every time we visit the doctor I need my insurance card, my address, phone number, and a questionnaire each time.
How do we make healthcare affordable for all without government intervention?
Do we just allow the poor to suffer? Again itâ€™s easy to cast blame or point the finger but if weâ€™re not part of the solution than weâ€™re part of the problem!
How do we fix our healthcare system so that all Americans poor and rich benefit? One option is to eliminate the Federal Reserve so that our tax money could be spent on actually paying for healthcare not the National Debt. Anyway we must come up with a way to fix this problem because our elected officials (liberal & conservative) are for sell none can be trusted. We the people must fix this system because our government has failed!

The process is even an affront to the ideals lofted by the so-called democratic party…Richman makes an excellent point- with a bill that almost nobody will truly comprehend, how is that any sort of democracy? It's more like despotism, communism maybe even but it's not anywhere near democracy.